The Art of Princess Mononoke

First impressions? Well I can’t really remember! ^_^;
I bought this book in the year 2000, and that was quite some time ago. I do remember feeling anxious (the book I know, cost me alot, but I again I can’t remember how much!) Once I started going through it though, I was not dissapointed.

Page after page of CGI artwork, paintings, beautiful backgrounds, sketches and some stunning cel art. So many of my favourite images from the movie were included!
The book starts out with an introduction, but then follows on with poems written by Hayao Miyazaki to communicate his vision of the film to the musical composer Jo Hisaishi. These poems are lovely (and cemented my belief that buying the English version of this book was an excellent decision.) There is then a one page intro by Miyazaki himself, before we get into the actual artwork itself… and wow!

I had seen the movie already, and recognised that the artwork displayed traced the plot of the movie. We follow Ashitaka along his journey, from his village to the mountains, his first encounter with San and the wolves, into the mining village and then onto the forests and so on. Lush and beautiful artwork, paintings that really bring back the power and beauty of so many scenes from the movie.
Most of the images come with accompanying text describing the image, almost as if telling the story to the viewer.

The 8 pages of information on the computer graphics and digital work used in the movie are very enlightening and interesting. There is a short interview with CG director Yoshinori Sugano, and then information on certain techniques & technologies used in the movie. Following this are the layout sketches created by Miyazaki for the movie.

All in all this is definitely a definitive and “complete” book for fans of this movie. My only gripe would be that unlike the other “Art of” books that Studio Ghibli has put out, this does not contain any actual artwork painted by the artist Hayao Miyazaki. It is mainly CGI, cellart, background paintings, and sketches. All beautiful in their own right, but it would have been nice to have seen some work drawn and painted by Miyazaki himself. Unfortunately, from what I gather, it was during this time Miyazaki was losing the mobility in his fingers, and Princess Mononoke was slated to be one of his last.

GET this book if you can. It’s status is sold out but on checking Amazon.Com I see that there are still books for sale used (and almost new.) While I intend to get my hands on the Japanese edition of this book, I will never ever sell the English version!

For more information, read here and here.